My Bloggers as Filters post seems to have struck a chord; I'm getting a lot of referral traffic because of it (thanks for visiting!).  Interesting how of all the things I write about, the articles about blogging seem to attract the most traffic.  I actually wish it wasn't so, I'd rather be known for philosophy or technical issues or simply, er, being a decent filter ;)

So the North Korean "situation" continues to evolve.  While the six-country talks were taking place Steven Den Beste suggested things were hitting the fan, but then the talks ended in stalemate, and now North Korean says they're not interested in more talks.  The key continues to be China.  We have a corrupt, bankrupt, renegade state on the verge of collapse, attempting to hold the world hostage with the threat of nuclear weapons, and China continues to prop them up.

Victor Davis Hansen notes "everyone" is Hoping We Fail in Iraq.  Well, I guess "everyone" will be disappointed, because the resolve of Americans is pretty strong.  I think Democrats like Howard Dean who are criticizing the administration are going to be soundly defeated in the 2004 elections.  [ via LGF ]

In addition to "everyone", many Iraqis are hoping the U.S. fails, too.  Bernard Lewis discusses why Iraq is proving more difficult than Afghanistan, and suggests we Put the Iraqis in Charge.  I happen to disagree, but the discussion is interesting and the idea is soundly defended.

This is terrible, just terrible.  The LATimes reports Michigan Takes New Path to School Diversity.  "The University of Michigan, told by the U.S. Supreme Court in June to scrap its admissions system of awarding bonus points to minority applicants, on Thursday unveiled a new application that asks all students to write a short essay on diversity."  Are you kidding me?  Now instead of a bias toward people with a certain skin color, they're going to add a bias toward people with leftist politics.  This is completely ridiculous.  And for a State-sponsored university, illegal.  [ via GNXP ]

Wired reports on A Watch Powered by Snake Oil.  On top of being an expensive scam, the watch is kind of ugly, too.  Wearing this would be a sure way of saying "I'm clueless".  (I'd like to see the "EMF-proof" lingerie mentioned in the article...)

WiFi is everywhere!  Even on the ocean...

Here's a thorough review of a cool product, the Archos Mediabox.  This device goes way beyond being an MP3 player; it has a 20GB hard drive, and can store and play MPEG-4 videos (e.g. encoded with DIVX).  What's more, it can encode composite video streams from a TV, DVD, VCR, or camcorder.  That's pretty cool.  I wonder if Apple is looking into this?  The iPod A/V, anyone?

And here's another coolgadget, the Garmin Forerunner, a GPS unit for your wrist.  "The Forerunner 201 uses an integrated GPS sensor to measure training time, pace, distance, lap time, lap pace, lap distance — even calories burned."  Now that's a cool use for GPS.  Perfect for mountain biking!  [ via Gizmodo ]

And check this out - the smallest megapixel camera, from Sharp.  Coming soon to somewhere near you, but you probably won't see it.  These will end up in cell phones, I'm guessing, and videophone messaging will be The Thing.

Just in case you think Google is perfect, Silflay Hraka reports they are #1 search result for "French military history".  The whole "how should Google treat blogs" discussion seems to have died down, but there is clearly still an issue.  I seriously doubt people researching French military history want to be directed to Silflay Hraka, although it is a great blog...

I review a bunch of awesome new technology here, but here's some stuff you don't see every day.  A Dimensional Warp Generator, a Quantum Computer (from Intel, no less!), a Portable Fusion Generator, and of course a Time Transduction Capacitor.  I am not making this up - but they are :)